As a commander in service to the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War, Dreed was a human. In the time shortly following the Battle of Yavin, Dreed was given the assignment to locate and capture any Alderaanians who had managed to survive the destruction of their homeworld of Alderaan. From Tula, an Alderaanian who was a member of his Star Destroyer's crew, he discovered that Princess Leia Organa of the Rebel Alliance was undertaking a mission to rescue Alderaanians before Dreed could find them.
On the planet Sullust, Dreed finally caught up with Organa, but she and her allies were able to defeat his stormtroopers and escape. Dreed then used Tula as leverage, holding her hostage to force Organa into a meeting on the planet Skaradosh. At the meeting, Organa traded herself for Tula's freedom. However, with the help of the Sullustan smuggler Nien Nunb, the princess's allies launched an attack on the Imperials, ultimately killing Dreed and rescuing both Organa and Tula.
During the Galactic Civil War, Dreed was a servant of the Galactic Empire in their fight against the Alliance to Restore the Republic. He held the rank of commander and had command of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer after the Empire's Death Star battle station was destroyed at the Battle of Yavin. In 0 ABY, Dreed received orders to locate and capture the natives of the planet Alderaan who had managed to survive the Death Star's destruction of their homeworld.
As Dreed carried out this assignment, [Tula](/article/tula], an Alderaanian member of his crew, was contacted by her sister, Tace. Tace informed her that Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan was on a mission to save the Alderaanian survivors from Imperial persecution. Tace was unaware that Tula was loyal to the Empire, and Dreed used her as a source of information about Organa, with Tula contacting Tace each night to get updates on the princess's whereabouts and plans. He learned through the sisters that Organa intended to travel to the planet Sullust to meet with an Alderaan Enclave located there.
Organa landed on Sullust and reached the enclave, but as she attempted to convince its inhabitants to join her, they discovered the communication between Tace and Tula and accused Organa of collaborating with the Empire. As Organa and her pilot companion, Evaan Verlaine, were forced to flee from their kinsmen, Dreed dispatched a Sentinel-class landing craft carrying a platoon of stormtroopers to attack the enclave. The troopers descended into the underground enclave from the ceiling, but Organa and Verlaine led a herd of rockrenders back into the enclave to fight them, resulting in the troopers' defeat. Upon learning of his men's dead, Dreed decided to allow the Alderaanians to escape so they could lead him to another world, rather than deploying more troops.
However, Organa and her allies had now realized Tula's deception, and the next time she contacted Tace via video transmission, Dreed understood that the charade was over. Since she was no longer useful to him, he ordered Tula to be taken away and processed for detention. Organa pleaded with him for an exchange in an attempt to save Tace's sister. The commander demanded that the princess surrender herself, which Organa agreed to, arranging an exchange on the desert world of Skaradosh. Dreed traveled from his Star Destroyer to the planet's surface in a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, arriving shortly before the Alderaanian party's T-1 shuttle.
The prisoners were exchanged without incident, but before Organa could be put aboard the Imperial shuttle, the starship Mellcrawler suddenly appeared and opened fire on the Imperials. Nien Nunb, the Sullustan smuggler who was assisting the Alliance as a friend of Verlaine, had secretly brought the ship into the planet's atmosphere. Dreed grabbed Organa to use as a shield to protect himself, but she escaped by stomping on his foot. Verlaine then fired from aboard the starship, killing Dreed. The rebels then launched a decoy vessel from Skaradosh's surface, which Dreed's Star Destroyer crew, now under the command of Captain Venk, destroyed, believing it contained their enemies. The Star Destroyer's crew, thinking they had killed Organa, then traveled to the planet Espirion, where Organa and her assembled Alderaanian survivors joined forces to destroy the Imperial ship.
Dreed, as an Imperial officer tasked with hunting down Alderaan's survivors, possessed a degree of respect for Leia Organa. While he thought she might have something to teach the Empire about combat after she defeated his forces on Sullust, he consistently dismissed her belief that all Alderaanians were worth saving.
He was impressed by how easily Tula, his Alderaanian crew member, was able to betray her sister, but he was still prepared for her to betray him at some point. After realizing that the surviving Alderaanians had seen through his scheme, Dreed ordered Tula to be taken into detention, as she was no longer useful. During the prisoner exchange, Dreed kept his Star Destroyer in Skaradosh's orbit to ensure that the Alderaanians did not betray him, asserting that he was more willing to honor his agreement and let the others go free if he received Organa.
Dreed was a human with fair skin, gray eyes, and black hair featuring a gray streak.
Dreed commanded an Imperial-class Star Destroyer during his mission to locate and capture the surviving Alderaanians. He wore a standard gray Imperial officer's uniform and was unarmed during the prisoner exchange on Skaradosh.
Dreed's first appearance was in the third issue of the 2015 Star Wars: Princess Leia comic miniseries. Mark Waid wrote the issue, Terry Dodson illustrated it, and Marvel Comics published it on April 29, 2015.